After the already investigated cultural and economic factors, the political factors are also relevant in the context of becoming a hub and attracting organizations or students. Political factors are the political stability, governmental strategies, the political sustainability, the political structure and the governmental support.
5.1.3.1. Political stability
Political stability has been considered rather positive. However, resulting from political complications and the small seat majority in the cabinet there is a moderate risk for the political stability of Curacao and thus a risk that the prime minister will not be able to govern until the next election in 2016 (A.M. Best Company, 2014; Country Report Curacao, 2014). These aspects can be seen as negative because a fragile political stability is unattractive for investments of foreign companies and for the attraction of students. The answers in the survey were divided, 31% did strongly agree or agree, 38% had a neutral position and 31% (strongly) disagree. The interviewed people had a rather different opinion and thought that stability is given and there is no danger concerning negative developments, which is due to the existing connection to the Netherlands (see table 5.7). Overall, the stability has been estimated positively in Curacao because political stability is mainly given on the island.
5.7 Results of the interview: Political stability
“Well, the political system is for a small island like ours it is relatively stable. Of course there are issues; some local issues. There are some issues between islands; there are some
issues between Curacao and the European party [the Dutch representatives] in The Hague. There are several issues but on the long term or on a bigger perspective it is relatively calm.”
[I13: 151-154]
5.1.3.2. Governmental Strategies
Strategies are needed to reach goals in the short-term and in the long-term. This criterion has been evaluated negatively for the island (see table 5.8). It has been stated that the country lacks a vision and a long time view on strategies to implement policies. As the first statement below implies:
5.8 Results of the interview: Governmental strategies
“I think the first thing they should have is a clear and inspiring vision what kind of island do you want to become“ [I15: 158-159] and “[…] there is a very big focus on short term
things, short term effects, short term popularity and short term results.” [I15: 395-397] “Politicians tend to focus on results in the next six month or perhaps in the next 1-2 years. If you say we want to have a vision for Curacao in 2035, they will fall asleep. They are
not busy with such a vision”. [I15: 399-401]
In the second statement, it becomes obvious that this problem is strongly connected to the politicians. This is supported by other respondents who stated that the government has to focus on long-term planning instead of just focussing on short-term and short-term money. There is a total lack of a long-term political strategies or visions. Curacao would have the potential if they were able to use it and to create a long-term vision on transnational education. The politicians do not adopt a long-term policy and the parliament and representatives are not long-term focussed. In the interviews, the given responses were quite negative (see table 5.9).
5.9 Results of the interview: Political sustainability
Positive Neutral Negative No Answer
8 1 1 6
Political stability
Positive Neutral Negative No Answer
0 0 12 4
Governmental strategies
Positive Neutral Negative No Answer
0 1 10 5
“The government will never commit itself to anything and if they committed then next year there are new elections, new politicians come up and they say, well the first thing we do
is to change the policies of the past government because that was so bad. There goes all your investment and all your strategy. This is so embedded in society of these islands […]”.
[I5: 405-409]
This quote gives an impression of what is happening in Curacao. This is strongly connected to the attitude, which will be investigated later on. It indicates a problem concerning governmental support and structure. Curacao faces the difficulty that politicians only think about the short-term future or have priorities other than education. Furthermore, the political structure is seen as rather negative (42%) in the survey and in the interviews (see table 5.10).The response below gives an insight of the complications in political long time planning, support and structure.
5.10 Results of the interview: Political structure and governmental support
“They want to deal with safety, security first. We have an oil refinery, which is a big deal, we have international trade, there are so many other issues that have preference over poor
educational system and this is really a shame. Therefore, I think education is not at the highest of the priority list of the government. [I13: 161-165]
Several participants argued that the government has to support the education development with commitment and with financial funding. This financial support is currently not in place. This has also been supported in the survey where only 11% had a positive opinion, 47% a neutral view and 42% saw no financial support.
To sum up the political factors, it becomes obvious that the whole environment and structure faces problems in different areas; missing willingness, missing money, missing ideas, missing attitudes and missing or wrong priorities. Furthermore, corruption and nepotism are problems that need to be taken into account (Country Report Curacao, 2014, “Former Minister Constancia arrested”, 2015). Curacao faces structural economic weaknesses due to their political situation, the high business costs and poor labour market flexibility (Country Report Curacao, 2014). The island faces different interests of different groups including a missing linkage between the society and the politicians and a problem of understanding the use of good governance (Schotborgh-van de Ven & van Velzen, 2013).
5.1.4. Rules, regulations and attitude
In strong connection to political issues, it should be focussed on rules and regulations, too. This includes laws, visa, bureaucracy and red tape. A country’s environment is further influenced by the attitude of people in a country.
Positive Neutral Negative No Answer
4 1 13 0
5.1.4.1. Laws
The persons who talked about the law (5 of 16 respondents) have spoken about the juridical factor positively. The positive opinion exists due to the strong connection to the Netherlands and the existence of a “[…] reliable […]” [I15: 278] “[…] high-quality Dutch legal
system.”[I7: 177] This relation is seen as positive for the island and for possible businesses or business problems. A major factor, which leads to this positive estimation, is the existence of the already mentioned higher court in The Hague that can become responsible if complications occur. As the supported in the statement below:
“The strong part is that the justice department is still linked to the Netherlands. So you are sure that if you have your rights and something is going injustice that you can go to the
Dutch court and that you can fight your case and win.” [I11: 258-261]
5.1.4.2. Visa
Another criterion that has been named in the literature and stated as preference of students is the easy availability of visa in a country (Cheng et al, 2013). This should be guaranteed to be a country aiming at becoming a knowledge hub or just attractive for its education. Respondents of the survey saw this criterion different; 37% had a positive view and 37% a negative opinion. The rest had a neutral position. This criterion is seen as complicated by different interview respondents stating that challenges and problems may occur in the context of getting a visa. Only one respondent did not find getting a visa to be a problematic process.
5.1.4.3. Bureaucracy
Visa and bureaucracy can be strongly connected. Bureaucracy was one of the criteria mentioned very often during the interviews. The interview respondents had negative opinions and talked about barriers, which have to be crossed in order to get a visa or other things, which are connected to governmental institutes.
5.11 Results of the interview: Bureaucracy
“Getting the permit to go there, that takes some time because of the red tape and the bureaucracy. […]. I organized several round table sessions with people from the agency over
there and that was really mentioned at the priority number one. They think that the government should go on. […]. Because know you need permit from different departments
but it is better to have one and they organize that” [I11: 343-348]
These complications and barriers are problematic for both student attraction and company attraction. Companies would like to have an attractive business environment and
Positive Neutral Negative No Answer
0 0 12 4
this is only seen by 43% of the survey respondents, 37% had a neutral view, whereas 21% even disagreed on this criteria. The bureaucracy step for students is linked to the point that they need to get permission from the university. Companies face problems with labour or establishment permits. In the end, most students and companies will get a permit, but it takes time. Overall, the interviewed people agreed with each other stating that bureaucracy is negative in Curacao including the complication of getting a bank account.
5.1.4.4. Attitude
Another critical criterion is the attitude in Curacao. Pioneers or visionaries are nearly missing on the island for developing new ideas. Furthermore, if there is a visionary, there is the threat that he or she will face problems concerning the mentioned bureaucracy, individualism or personal difficulties due to jealous people.
“The focus is you pay me, I get my money if you go and you do not succeed at least the country good money from you. That is basically the attitude.” [I10: 387-389]
“This probably is the biggest challenges for Curacao. Stop talking and start doing. […].They are very good in talking about where to go and what to do but actually doing and
going is a problem.” [I15: 327-330]
Besides the statements above it has also been mentioned that each minister has his or her own ideas including the possibility that the ideas of the former minister will not be implemented anymore. Politicians have the tendency to make contradictory statements. If party B decides to do this and after the election party A comes to rule the country, they will do it the other way around. However, not only the individualistic criteria are rather negative. According to the respondents, the overall attitude on the island lacks entrepreneurial thinking. Summarizing the given answers of the interviews, it shows a clear picture of the expert’s opinions (see table 5.12).
5.12 Results of the interview: Attitude
Overall, it has been mentioned that Curacao faces problems due to their cultural background, their old connection to the Netherlands but also with their own attitude and willingness to take effort to implement changes.